Beef

STEAK

Tips on Buying the Best Steak:
1. Look for steaks with fine texture and firm to the touch.
2. You want the color to be a light cherry red color, not deep red. By all means stay away from gray meat.
3. Look for a steak that has marbling. It is the thin threads of fat running through the meat that makes it Prime and gives it that incredible flavor.
4. Dry aging is considered better than wet aging but that may be a matter of taste. However, avoid meat that has no aging and is too fresh.
5. If you do buy packaged meat, stay away from any with excessive moisture, tears or that are past their sell by date.

Difference Between Premium, Choice and Select
Prime
Between 1 - 2.5% of all beef processed in this country is good enough to be graded by the USDA as Prime. All Prime meets are inspected by USDA inspectors and are chosen on several factors including Marbling and Age. Marbling decides the tenderness, juiciness and flavor of each steak. The age of the beef determines texture and also effects flavor. Younger beef produces a finer texture and a lighter red color.

Choice
Choice is the next grade of meat and there is nothing wrong with it. Choice can be nearly as good as Prime, especially in the top 2/3 of the grade. Generally, it tends to have a little less marbling (and therefor less complexity to the flavor) and a slightly tougher texture than Prime.

Select
Select has the least amount of marbling making it lean but not so tender or tasty. This grade can be nearly as good as choice in the top 1/3 of the grade. Has less marbling and less flavor. Can be considered tough in texture and can easily dry out when overcooked.

Salting Steaks
Salting steaks is an important step in bringing out the most flavor in your steak, but if you do it wrong you can ruin your steak.

Salting steak initially brings out the water in the steak. If you salt too early and begin grilling you can turn your steak gray and ruin it. *Water on the steak basically steams the meat and ruins it.

As time passes the salt dissolves into and is sucked back into the meat. When the Salt is sucked into the meat it causes it turn tender and juicy.

Meat Temperature
Rare              110-120F
Medium Rare 120-130F
Medium         130-140F
Medium Well 140-150F
Well Done     150 - +



Let meat Stand before Carving

Meat temperatures continue to rise for a few minutes after the meat is removed from the heat, so generally, you should remove meat from the oven when it is 5°F to 10°F from its final cooking temperature. A stand time of 10 to 20 minutes for large cuts of meat, such as roasts, turkeys, and whole chickens, is recommended to allow the meat to finish cooking without drying out.
Not only does this prevent overcooking, it also makes the meat easier to carve. Many experts also believe that standing permits the moisture in the meat, which comes to the surface during cooking, to return to the tissues, thereby making the meat moister.